After 7 years and 9 surgeries, this Long Beach Poly football coach walks again

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Merle Cole is a longtime local football coach who has been confined to a Rascal scooter due to back injuries the last several years. He's had several failed operations to try and correct the issue. Recently, he had a successful surgery that has allowed him to walk for the first time in years. Long Beach, Monday, February 20, 2017. (Photo by Thomas R. Cordova, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Merle Cole is a longtime local football coach who has been confined to a Rascal scooter due to back injuries the last several years. Recently, he had a successful surgery that has allowed him to walk for the first time in years. Long Beach, Monday, February 20, 2017. (Photo by Thomas R. Cordova, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

At Long Beach Poly High School’s college showcase on Tuesday evening, more than 20 college football coaches dotted the sideline of Burcham Field, including representatives from powerhouses like Alabama and Ohio State. The star of the show, however, was Merle Cole Jr., a longtime Poly assistant and youth football coach in Long Beach.

He sat in his familiar blue Rascal scooter for the first few minutes of the workout and then stood, drawing smiles and applause from former Poly players on hand.

It was a simple action, with a deep meaning for those who know and love Cole.

“That means a lot to me, Merle,” said Darrell Rideaux, an All-American at Poly and USC. “To see you walk again, that’s amazing.”

Cole has spent his adult life teaching the boys and girls of Long Beach how to run, yet the longtime football and track coach has been unable to walk for the past seven years.

A series of surgeries and staph infections left Cole confined to the scooter, which became ubiquitous around the football games and track meets. Cole fought off suggestions of amputation and finally, with his ninth surgery, he’s back on his feet this spring.

“One night I woke up, and instead of reaching for my cane, I just walked to the bathroom,” he said. “That was it. I’ve been trying to stay on my feet ever since.”

Walking is something most people take for granted, Cole said. Seven years ago he went in for a knee replacement, as years of defensive back work and hands-on coaching had worn his meniscus down to where his left knee was bone-on-bone. The replacement went well, but while he was doing physical therapy a few months later, the knee started burning.

Cole went to the doctor and then straight into the hospital; he had a staph infection. Two days later he began a series of surgeries and aggressive antibiotics.

“Every six weeks to two months for almost a year I had another surgery trying to get it all out,” said Cole. “They put in antibiotic plates, everything, but the tests kept coming up that I was infected.”

Cole’s eighth surgery brought its own complications: After doctors began they realized that the infections had left his legs so emaciated that they didn’t have enough skin to close the wound.

“I was at Lakewood Regional for two weeks while they were trying to figure that out, and finally I went to Memorial with a plastic surgeon,” he said. In a 10-hour surgery, the plastic surgeon took muscles from the back of his leg and skin from his right thigh, creating a graft to close the wound on his left leg. He was in recovery at Memorial for more than a month.

The recovery was slow and painful, and Cole couldn’t stand on his weakened legs, which were so tight that he couldn’t lift them almost at all, even when resting on his back. He consulted with several surgeons who suggested amputation, because there wasn’t enough muscle left on the leg to work with.

Cole’s wife had to delay her retirement to help with the loss of income.

Cole said he went through a dark time; he’d always been a hands-on coach and suddenly he couldn’t even walk to get a glass of water, much less physically show a young player how to get into a proper stance.

The community of Long Beach football came together behind him, as Poly’s coaching staff welcomed him into film breakdowns to help him feel involved, and CIF Southern Section commissioner Rob Wigod sent Cole a courtesy CIF card that got him onto the sidelines of football games so he could still attend at stadiums where there wasn’t a wheelchair ramp.

Rapper Warren Griffin, better known by his stage name Warren G, was one of the kids Cole had helped keep on the right path, and he was in daily communication with him.

“We talked all the time; when they wanted to amputate his leg, I was right there with him,” said Griffin. “I told him go get a second opinion, and then I told him to get a third opinion.”

That final opinion was Dr. Andrew Wassef, who told Cole he thought he could alleviate the tension in his legs and graft enough skin and muscle to allow him to stand and walk close to normal. The surgery took place on Dec. 12 and lasted six hours, and Cole said the first thing he did when he woke up was to look down to see if his leg was still there.

“I’ve learned that a lot of stuff can happen in surgery,” he said. “When I saw it was still there I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ ”

Almost immediately he was able to lift his leg and straighten it, the first time he’d been able to do that in seven years. Wassef had cleared an enormous amount of scar tissue and, as Cole put it, “He put in all brand-new parts.”

Cole said the recovery was easy; this time, there was hope. He said he didn’t realize how many people supported him until Griffin posted a video of him walking on the official Warren G Instagram page. The video got over 10,000 views on Instagram and over 50,000 views on Facebook, with dozens of comments on both.

“It was overwhelming,” Cole said. “It really was. To know that all those people were rooting for me and happy to see me up on my feet again.”

Griffin said he wasn’t surprised by the show of support.

“He’s a great guy; he really cares about the community and kids,” said Griffin. “To see him stand up and walk again … wow. All the love he’s put into this community, it’s coming back to him. It’s like God’s given him a chance again.”

Mike Guardabascio has been writing professionally for 15 years and covering Long Beach sports for a decade. His work has been published in dozens of Southern California magazines and newspapers. He's won numerous awards and is the author of the historical book "Football in Long Beach" and co-author of "Basketball in Long Beach."